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Csorba Zoltán, a Hungarian civil servant, has recently lost his job because of his political views (own photo).It seems that in Hungary, the official propaganda regarding the
struggle between the Central European University (CEU)
and the Orban government, has started to have serious repercussions not only on
people connected to the University, but other progressive political groups.

Roma news portal Romnet has recently had two
cases brought to its attention in which employees in the civil sector were seemingly
dismissed in part because of their CEU affiliation. Taken together with another
similar and widely reported occurrence that relates to a local civil servant pushed
out of office because of his association with the newly formed Momentum
Movement, such instances reveal a pattern of unacceptable political pressure on
public employees. They are forced to limit their involvement with any
institution or political faction disliked by the current Hungarian government
on pain of losing their employment.

According to Romnet’s informants, some of whom declined to be
identified, the Hungarian government cannot cope with criticism. Those people
who don’t fit into its complex system of client-patron relationships and are
connected to institutions that are deemed to be anti-government, can easily become
persona non grata, and are then removed from any position of influence.

Civil servant leaves
Ministry of Human Resources

The most recent, controversial case reported by Romnet concerns Zoltan
Csorba, a civil servant at the Hungarian Ministry of Human Resources, who was
summarily dismissed a few days ago for his views on the Hungarian government’s
policies and his association with the ill-fated CEU. Mr Csorba told Romnet that
he had been the target of a sustained series of personal political attacks
simply because he voiced professional criticism towards the Ministry’s social
integration program and also, as he was openly told, because he worked as a freelance
lecturer for the CEU. Following his dismissal, Mr Csorba turned to the courts
and the Hungarian Equal Treatment Authority.

He holds a degree in political sciences
and since 2014 has worked for an organisation closely connected to the
Hungarian Human Resources Ministry as a manager in one of its Roma integration
programs, where he voiced a number of views regarded as controversial by his
employer. However, a closer look at Mr Csorba’s previous career reveals that he
was no stranger to whistleblowing and that he had already suffered for exposing
instances of official corruption and wrongdoing.

From 1997 to 2011, Mr Csorba was in charge of the Roma Youth
Integration program of Józsefváros, one of Budapest’s local authorities. The program offered
after-school activities to hundreds of Roma students, but the local government
saw fit to stop the service in the Spring of 2011, a move that our informant
believes was politically motivated. ‘A great number of programs that allowed
Roma youth to sit higher education exams were terminated suddenly, at the
stroke of a pen, in the worst possible moment for our students, right before
the university entry examination season’ he complained at the time to news
portal Sosinet. Mr Csorba saw the closing of this program as a personal witch
hunt against him since he was openly opposed to the policies of the National
Roma Minority Self-Government, a government puppet institution dominated by
government spokesperson Florian Farkas and his organisation, Lungo Drom. The group has been mired in controversy and accusations of corruption ever since and has recently had to pay
back a large amount of European funding because of embezzlement.

After several years of working for a now defunct government
quango, the Türr István Training and Research Institute, Csorba was transferred
to another government background institution, the Directorate-General for
Social and Child Protection (SZGYF), and recently was put in charge of the institution’s
Mentoring Network program. This program
was meant to employ 110 professionals, mostly of Roma ethnicity, who would help
in the integration of marginalised families at a county level. However, in
spite of being a senior manager, Csorba told us that the Director General of
SZGYF failed to involve him in any decision-making pertaining to his work and
did not allow him access to crucial information such as the initiative’s budget
and long term plans.

According to Csorba, his first conflict with his superior came
about after he questioned the logic of hiring as local mentors a number of
people closely connected to the now discredited National Roma Minority
Self-Government, who had almost zero qualifications and experience in the
roles, while other, highly qualified and experienced, mostly Roma, candidates
were sidelined on what Csorba considers the discriminatory grounds that their
diplomas may be ‘fake’. Csorba found it unacceptable that yet again, a program
meant to reach the grassroots mainly Roma communities, was turned into a
money-spinner for a well-connected political elite.

Already in a meeting back in February to discuss this matter, Zsolt Bátori,
Director of SZGYF indicated that he was considering dismissing Csorba since
‘highly positioned politicians have objected to his status within the project’.
Further Mr Bátori thought that it was a problem that Mr Csorba had stood for
local elections in the past; and that in a previous job application for a
management job with a Budapest-based government organization dealing with Roma
Education and Culture (FROKK), he had formulated a strong critique of the political
decisions taken by local politicians in Budapest’s 8th district local
government. Mr Csorba also said that his employer, SZGYF objected to the fact
that he worked as a freelance language tutor for the CEU, as the Ministry’s
background institution had recently been subject to ‘significant pressure’ in
this respect.

Due to internal restructuring, Csorba’s employment with SZGYF was
subject to a recent contract, and at the time of his dismissal he was on
probation. He found himself under intense pressure to resign because of what he
regards as politically motivated objections to his work. Finally he did so
under duress, knowing that within weeks, his employer would formally dismiss
him anyway due to his known connections with the CEU.

Sacked because of his connections to
the CEU

Romnet recently reported another case in which a manager in
a Hungarian state institution felt obliged to comply with real or imagined
official directives by sacking an employee simply because he had a Masters
degree from the beleaguered CEU.

A reader and personal acquaintance of Romnet,
who declined to make public his identity, informed the portal that a week ago
he was called in to meet with the head of his institution where he was told
that his contract will be dissolved because the organisation cannot employ
people who are in any way connected to the Central European University. The
employee reported that his manager regretted the decision, but felt obligated
to let him go as a result of an official directive. The manager also promised
that he would help find his employee a new workplace through his own contacts.

The employee who had acquired his Masters at the CEU between
2010-2014 (during the ‘second Orbán regime’), said that he had not made any
political comments at work, and that in the past his managers had been happy
with his performance. Due to his extensive knowledge of foreign languages
(English, German and Italian), he had been frequently asked to represent his
institution abroad, so he was completely confounded by the decision of his
superiors.

Although for now the Romnet reader chooses not to disclose his
name or that of his employer, he has also said that later he would be willing
to go public with his story because he finds in unacceptable that leaders of
state institutions are in a position to threaten or bring reprisals against an
employee simply because of their need to comply with the current government’s
line.

He considers his dismissal illegal and a clearly political
decision, linked to the fact that he studied at the university that the
government refers to simply [and erroneously] as the ‘Soros University’. He
feared that hundreds of graduates could be similarly dismissed within days
since many CEU graduates work in the public sector, including government
spokesperson Kovács Zoltán. Romnet’s informant also commented that he feared
more public institutions will start reprisals against such ex-CEU graduates who
have taken part in the recent demonstrations to support their alma mater. Romnet’s
source said he would turn to the courts for unfair dismissal.

Job lost for
collecting signatures on a public petition

Recently the Hungarian media has also covered widely the case of
one of the members of the Momentum Movement, András Pencz, who was dismissed from his workplace, the local authority
of Budatetény, for collecting signatures in the recent NOlimpia campaign
against Budapest’s 2024 Olympic bid. Thanks to the great number of signatures
collected from the citizens of Budapest, the Momentum Movement erupted into the
limelight by scoring what some see as a major victory against the FIDESZ
government.

Pencz had worked for the local authority for more than a year
when he was dismissed shortly after Momentum delivered the anti-Olympics
petition to the authorities. In his written dismissal notice Mr Pencz was told
‘You are an excellent colleague and we are happy with your work. However, this
issue [that you are involved in] is important for our municipality. [Given that
we are] a small town, we cannot maintain this relationship [with you] because
of the Olympics’.

These are no isolated cases in Hungary’s current political
climate. Although it is not at liberty to disclose the details, Romnet has
knowledge of other citizens, even elected political representatives, who have
been subjected to severe pressure from the authorities and have had to modify
their political behaviour under threat to their personal and professional life.

These events, taken together with the open attacks on liberal
institutions and civil society, paint a grim picture of life under the Orbán
government, one where the public’s right to free speech is under sever threat
and where being in the wrong place at the wrong time as well as any kind of
opposition political activism can land one in big personal trouble.

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